[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]

AMSTERDAM/SÃO PAOLO, November 7, 2012 –
Since the IPO of Zynga and Facebook, investors have
questioned the growth potential of “social games”, or
rather games played on social networks such as Facebook. Recent
research and analysis of Newzoo confirms that spending on Facebook
games in the US has stabilized. Despite a year-on-year growth of
17% in terms of players, the number of paying American social
gamers has not grown and remains 19 million. On a global scale, the
market continues to grow, fueled by Asian and other growth
markets such as Brazil. In terms of players Brazil shows
year-on-year growth of 20%. The number of paying players has grown
26% to 8.1 million boosting total spending with 25%. Investors
criticizing the potential of “social games” also seem
to overlook the fact that social networks play a crucial role in
the current games market, connecting games and gamers across all
platforms or screens.

Infographic

Key findings related to social gaming in Brazil (versus the US)
are depicted in an infographic:

Almost half of the 200 million Brazilians now have access to the
internet. Of those consumers, 60 million can be considered active
users, going online at least several times a month. This is 17%
more than a year ago. Most newcomers to the web use social networks
as starting point. Also, most Brazilians have friends and family
members outside of Brazil stimulating them to keep connected via
social networks. Therefore, it is not surprising that gaming on
social networks is so popular and growing at a faster pace than the
internet penetration.

Moacyr Alves Júnior, president of ACIGAMES comments:
“Our partner Newzoo gives us direct access to data on the
continuously changing Brazilian games market. With this, we always
an updated monitor of the Brazilian online and mobile
games market, which will help even more in the development of this
sector in our country".

Key Facts on Social Gaming in Brazil and the US

· In 2012
the number of social network gamers in Brazil increased by 20% to
29.0m compared to a 17% in the US (88.9m social network gamers)

· When it
comes to paying players, Brazil saw an increase by 26% to 8.1m
compared to the US that saw no increase, remaining at 18.9m
“payers”

· 28% of
the social network gamers in Brazil spends money on social network
games, higher than the 21% share in the US.

Key Facts on Demographics & Preferences of Brazilan
Social Gamers

· Players
consist of an equal amount of men and women (49% v 51%) but
when it comes to payers, males dominate (56% v 44%)

· In
Brazil, 21-35 year olds makeup the largest portion of players (47%)
and payers (50%)

· 86% of
Brazilian social network gamers play on Facebook and 31% plays on
Orkut

· 38% of
social gamers in Brazil social games developer Zynga, making it the
most recognized international publisher brand, followed by
GameHouse (19%) and King.com (17%)

·
Strategy is the most popular genre in both Brazil and the US

·
“Core” genres make up the top three in Brazil with
action/adventure and race games in 2
nd and 3
rd place compared to “Casual” genres Puzzles
and Quizzes/Trivia in the US.

Research

The research and analysis performed by Newzoo is partially based
on a consumer research effort this September in the US and Brazil.
This was part of a larger consumer research effort involving a
total of 33,000 respondents across key Western and Emerging
markets. Newzoo and its partners also involve transactional data on
online and mobile games to provide the total picture. Newzoo
clients cross-analyze over 200 topics on the Brazilian games market
using the Newzoo Data Explorer.

===================

Newzoo (
www.newzoo.com), founded in 2007, is the
international research and analysis firm focused purely on the
global games market. It provides its clients with consumer,
transactional and financial data to keep track of the total picture
and put changes in the marketinto perspective. Newzoo’s
clients include Wizards of the Coast, Plantronics, SEGA, Konami,
Blizzard, GlobalCollect, EA, GameHouse, Microsoft and SpilGames.
www.newzoo.com.
Contact: Peter Warman, CEO Newzoo,
peter@newzoo.com, +31 20 6635816,
www.newzoo.com

ACI Games (
www.acigames.com), is a Brazilian association
created with the objective of representing and regulating the
electronic games industry and trade, as well as encouraging
culturally the sector of games in Brazil and the debate about its
role in the society, education and economic development.
Contact: Moacyr Alves Júnior., President
ACI Games,
moacyr@acigames.com.br, +55 11 98704-7350,
www.acigames.com